Sphero’s BB-8 will be launching tomorrow, on “ Force Friday,” and will retail for $150. You just place it on its stand.) And of course it has the movie droid’s distinctive and weirdly endearing shape - a robotic head floating above a rotating ball.

(In other words, you don’t have to plug in the BB-8 to charge it. Maigret said that underneath the hood, BB-8 uses much of the same technology as Sphero’s existing robotic ball, but with upgrades like a new inductive charging system. (At that point it started moving around the room on its own, looking for enemies.) And through his iPhone camera, we could actually watch BB-8 broadcast holographic messages recorded by other users - perhaps inevitably, the message riffed on the “Help me, Obi-Wan scene” from the original Star Wars. He also used his iPhone to give it voice commands - for example, telling it to go on patrol. When Sphero’s Chief Creative Officer Rob Maigret demonstrated the BB-8 for me, he used his iPhone like a remote control, rolling the droid around the room. But hey, it’s a Star Wars droid that you can control from your smartphone or tablet, which is pretty freaking cool. To be clear, this BB-8 isn’t as big as the one depicted on-screen, and it probably won’t be quite as smart or independent. As far as I know, you won’t be able to bring home a real-life spaceship or light saber - but you can buy your own BB-8 droid, thanks to a collaboration between Disney and robotics startup Sphero.

Usually, when you fall in love with a cool gadget depicted in the latest science fiction blockbuster, the best you can hope for is that maybe, maybe, some gifted entrepreneur will be inspired to bring it to life in the years to come.įor the most part, that’ll be true of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (coming this December, as if you hadn’t already marked your calendar).

Bb8 control app